Author: I had something awesome and fun planned for Cronus and the Vantas twins to do as a distraction, but with me being the idiot I am and not writing it all down as soon as I finished the last chapter, I completely forgot what it was, so enjoy this installment of filler while I go and attempt to remember this crap.


"Karkat, in order for us to help you, you must help us. We need to know what exactly is up between you and this 'John' human." Cronus is straight forward with Karkat. He figures that it's best, rather than hiding his true intentions.

"What?" Karkat looks up at the purple-blooded troll. "What are you talking about?" His face shows confusion.

"What Cronus is trying to say is that you need to tell us what happened during this 'separation' in order for us to help you get over it," Kankri says. Before Karkat can talk again, he catches a glint out of the bottom of his eye and looks down at his hand. "When did I get this?"

Cronus looks at Kankri's right ring finger, which now holds a perfectly round, gold ring. He tries to think of where Kankri could possibly have gotten it, but is able to think of nothing because Kankri despises jewelry. Apparently jewelry can be triggering by way of someone showing off their wealth while other people are poor. Yeah, just stupid stuff like that. All the while Kankri just stares at his finger, trying to figure out where the frick he could possibly have gotten it.

Meanwhile, up in the clouds, two new godheads have entered the universe. Who might these godheads be?

Enter Name:

No, you are banned from naming things. I am blocking you. Anyway, these two godheads would be the Seer of Blood and the Bard of Hope. In short, those of Kankri and Cronus respectively. They meet just outside the Heirs mansion, which is in the process of collapsing.

"Cronus, you go do whatever. I'll go break up this civil war between my dancestor and his undeserving matesprit."

"Alright," the Bard agrees. Upon entering the universe, the two godheads separated from their mortal selves, but not for the same reason as the others. Instead, they split in order to multitask. And that's what they plan on doing. It is also here where we begin to follow Cronus, but not entirely, as we skip ahead of him and go down to the flooding high school.

Here, everyone is gathered in the main gym because the entire school is \rapidly depressurizing, causing more windows to break and more water to flood faster.

Suddenly, the water around the school moves outward in a maelstrom. The maelstrom grows and grows until it is almost a half of a mile wide. The doors of the school open, releasing the blood-red water from within. In ten minutes, the people trapped inside notice the lowered levels and walk out. The step onto dry land and watch the water swirl violently around them. The air, however, is mysteriously calm. With little warning, the Bitch Witch and Page of Hope appear before the students and faculty. The first question asked is addressed to the Page, and comes from a friend of Jake. "You look like one of my friends." Of course, the mood just has to be ruined by someone who recognizes them.

"Truth be known, my mortal self probably is. This would also mean that Jade, here, looks familiar as well." The Page's tone is soft and caring. It gives off a hint of an Australian accent, which the students recognize immediately.

"You're Jake," one of them says.

"Really, it's more like Jake is me," the Page responds. He hides the disgust in his voice when he says the name. It is at this point where Mr. Hussie has had enough. He's seen three gods already. He needs to know why they split apart. So he asks.

"So, why exactly did you split from your mortal selves." Okay, it's more of a demand than anything, but he didn't have the opportunity to ask the first. He's eager, so sue him.

"Well, it's hard to explain, but the short version is that they treated us like shit. Jade, here, was used for evil. She went grimbark and pretty much scared the living shit out of me. Right after she saved me and Jane, too.

"Jane's was also used for evil. She was forced to force Roxy into creating this … this matriorb, or whatever that thing was called. It was horrible. Pretty much, we were all treated like shit and we were tired of it, so we separated from our mortal selves and have been forcing them to live without our help. This does not mean, however, that their innocent friends will go without it. So we came to help." The Page smiles at everyone, who backs away in horror as a gray, horned creature garbed in a similar outfit joins the two gods.

"What's wrong," the Page asks, just before he is rudely interrupted.

"I see how it is. You all hold a water-tornado party and don't even invite the seadweller. That really hurts. It really does. Right here in the vascular pump." The new godhead points at his chest.

"Oh shit. Not this guy again," the Bitch Witch says.

"That doesn't look like any of the gods that I know of," Mr. Hussie says.

"That's because he doesn't even belong here. HE BELONGS BACK IN THE FUCKING VOID!" The Page shouts so that Cronus can hear him.

"Oh, come on, man. I was just out and about and wanted to have a little bit of fun."

"So you're the one who is doing all this?!" The superintendent looks like his head could explode from anger.

"No, I can't. Yes, it holds true that I am a seadwelling troll, but I have no power over water. Only hope. Now, if I could just stand here …" Cronus walks over and rests his elbow on the Page's shoulder. The Page gets a frown on his face, showing his disapproval.

"So, is this one evil," Mr. Hussie asks one of the other two godheads.

"No, just desperate," the Page responds, before Cronus whispers something in his ear.

"So, is this a pantsless party or should I leave mine on?" Cronus' voice is quiet, only so that the Page can hear him. The page, mortified by this question, slips out from under Cronus' arm.

"Jade, I think you should deal with the desperate Bard!"

"What the fuck is your problem," the Bitch Witch asks.

"Just … nothing. Just deal with him yourself."

While the three gods go at it, the situation for everyone else has turned into a "What the fuck am I watching" type thing. It has become awkward for both parties—The mortals and the gods.

.

"OH HELL NO!" Someone's loud, obnoxious shouting has rudely interrupted Meenah's shower. Yes, she does take showers on special occasions. Seconds later, she hears another shout, "OH FUCK NO!"

Okay, that's it, no more shower. She steps out, dries off, puts on her nicest outfit (yes, she also cares about this stuff on special occasions as well) and matching heels (again, yes on special occasions), and walks out to the source of the rude shouting. There, next to the ring case, the Serket twins are about to blow an earth "gasket". "What the fuck is goin' on here," she asks angrily. The spider 8itches ruined her shower, so she isn't happy. And she shows it.

"Someone stole the damn ring!" Vriska answers just as angrily.

"They did WHAT now?!"

"Yeah! They stole the fucking ring and it isn't here anymore!" Meenah pushes her way past the other two and looks in the ring case. She looks in, around, on, below, everywhere she can look, but finds nothing. This was supposed to be HER special day, and now it's completely fricking ruined. "When I find out who did this I'll fork 'em until they wish they were double fucking dead!"


Checking back in with John, who is currently freezing his literally hot ass off in the coldest fucking shower of his life, we see that not much has changed. He's actually beginning to enjoy it, now that his massive body burn is somewhat soothed. But alas, it was never fated to last, as he is allowed five more minutes, and Ms. Paint comes in to retrieve him and put him on bed rest with a crap ton of burn cream. Minutes later, Spades and the other members of the Midnight Crew, save Diamonds and Hearts, walk in. This is, of course, after Ms. Paint has John covered in burn cream and bandaged up. As Spades walks past his room, he catches a glimpse of something in his bed out of the corner of his eye. He stops just after he passes and backs up enough to see. With an annoyed face he confronts Paint in the kitchen, where she is currently making the scotty dog soup CORRECTLY.

"Why is the troll in my bed?"

"Because yours is the comfiest." Ms. Paint gives spades a wide smile as she stirs the soup in the new pot.

"Yeah, that's why it's in my room and not the guest room."

"You're just mad because he's an innocent little thing who just so happened to be in the wrong place a the wrong time and now he needs to use your bed."

"Seriously, what the fuck happened to him? He was all bandaged up and shit." Spades was never able to hide his irritation, and he isn't about to start now.

"Something went wrong with the soup and he kind of got burned." Ms. Paint gives a shy smile.

"All over?!"

"Horribly wrong." The smile disappears. Spades will never admit it, but he can never win an argument with Ms. Paint. It's like the two are married. One is always in control and the other is Spades. He knows that she is determined to have this troll use his bed and there's no getting it back until the damn thing leaves. There goes however many days of comfortable sleep. Who knows, he may even get some good night's anything-but-sleep out of this.

"Fine, but only for now." With that the black carapacian leaves and moves his stuff into Cans's room, because for some reason, the behemoth thinks he needs the second comfiest bed in the place. This causes a chain reaction where everyone moves into the room with the next comfiest bed until clubs gets the guest room, which has the least comfiest bed in the entire building.

When the soup is finished, Ms. Paint puts it on low head and makes two origami scotty dogs, rather than the one she makes for spades, and puts some soup into a bowl and takes it to John. On her way back to Spades's room, she comes across him, who seems to have yet another problem—the extra scotty dog.

"What the fuck is that?!" Spades can't help but raise his voice at this anarchy.

"What?" Ms. Paint sounds innocent as she holds the seemingly innocent tray.

"This," Spades spits as he picks up one of the origami scotty dogs.

"It looks like an origami scotty dog," Ms. Paint says.

"I can see that. What I want to know is why the fuck there are two! You only give me one whenever you make me some, yet give him two when he's only been here a few hours!" Spades throws the paper scotty dog back onto the tray where it almost lands in the soup.

"He is a very important guest. I was going to make him soup with an extra licorice scotty dog in it but it blew up!"

"So you burn him and give him an extra origami scotty dog as a consolation?"

"No … he accidentally knocked the flaming pot off the stove when he fell. I'm giving him the extra scotty dog because I couldn't put it in the soup. It has to be extra special in some way. Now fix the origami scotty dog and get out of my way!" Spades really has no choice but to oblige, and oblige he does, but begrudgingly. Once Paint gets her mind set on something, she never gives up on it. This is going to be a long however long it's going to take before this damn troll leaves, and Spades knows it.


Let's head back over to the trio to trolls that we were originally following at the beginning of this chapter. Kankri has long since taken off the ring and given it to Karkat to cheer him up. Karkat put it on, but it didn't seem to do anything for him, though Kankri's sudden amnesia did give him a chuckle. But now, it's back to seriousness. And no, it wasn't long ago since we last saw them. In fact, it's only been about thirty seconds. You have to keep in mind that everything we see happens near simultaneously.

Anyway, Kankri and Cronus have attempted to get Karkat to talk, and he seems to be more willing than earlier. "So, Karkat, back to vwhat wve vwere asking earlier before Kankri's episode, vwhat caused this split?" Cronus is actually, for once, not trying to hit on anybody, unlike his godhead over at the high school.

"Well, John's dad found out I am a troll, and for some dumb reason he thinks that all trolls are Lord English's servant's, well, those aren't his exact words, but it's implied, and he kicked me out. I was barely even able to say goodbye." Red droplets begin to form in his eyes as he talks.

"I'm sure John is just as miserable as you," Kankri says, trying to be comforting, but apparently not successfully.

"That was the plan."

"What," Cronus and Kankri say in unison. "What's the plan," Kankri continues alone.

"To … make John as miserable as possible …" Karkat tries to shrink away from the two other trolls, who now look like they want to hurt the ailing cancer.

"Karkat, why would you want to make your matesprit miserable? Don't you want him to be happy?" Kankri can't believe what he's hearing out of his dancestor's mouth.

"Well, he can't know about it, otherwise it would ruin the plan." Karkat tries to defend himself, but he can't get the words out.

"And howv, exactly, is this plan supposed to play out," Cronus asks.

"Well, I don't contact John at all, and I wait until he becomes so miserable that his dad realizes the horrendous mistake he made and invites me back in." Karkat has his head down. He can't even look at either of the other two.

"Karkat, no matter howv vwell you plan this stuff out, the other must knowv about it, othervwise you're just setting your matespritship up for inevwitable failure. Just think about howv he vwould react if you accidentally let it slip that you vwanted him to be miserable just so that you could come back? Just the fact that you vwanted him to be miserable wvould probably be enough to make him leavwe." Cronus allows for this to sink into Karkat's think pan.

.

Outside the motel, Bro, a.k.a. Adult Dirk, stalks his victim. However, this victim is only one, unlike the several his somewhat younger-yet-same-age bro was stalking. His victim is Karkat, and his goal is captivity of the depressed creature. He currently isn't one hundred percent sure that Karkat is in the motel, but judging by the car and the license plate, he's assuming he is.

Before he can do anything else, he turns around and holds his katana up against the chest of another stalker, this one being Adult Dave, who is holding his katana at Adult Dirk's neck. "Never attempt to sneak up on me, ever," Adult Dirk says quietly.

"I was just going to walk right on up beside you whether you knew about it or not," Adult Dave says just as quietly. Neither Strider lowers their sword for a few seconds until they're sure the other isn't going to start a strife. But that would be completely insane considering that they're on a mission. Adult Dirk walks toward the car. "I've been watching this motel now for about a day," he says normally. "So far I've seen two troll walk up to it … well, one walk up to it while pushing the other in a wheelchair. They went it that room right there," he points to the door of the room that houses the trolls. "So far I've seen one come out for a while. H returned about thirty minutes later with a few cups that I'm assuming were full of coffee. That was only about twenty minutes ago." He stops at the car. "I think that Karkat is here. This looks like his car and it looks like his stuff in it."

Hearing the voices outside, Kankri lifts the curtain to see who it is, or what it is. Upon seeing the people, Karkat orders Kankri to drop the curtain and hides.

"Hey, did you see that," Adult Dave asks Bro.

"See what?"

"That curtain just moved. It literally just lifted itself up, stayed there for like, two seconds, and dropped."

Adult Dirk rolls his eyes behind his stupid anime shades. "Oh yeah, I saw that with they eyes in the back of my fucking skull. Of course I didn't see that, idiot. My back is turned to the damn building."

"Karkat, who is that and why are you so afraid of them?" Kankri can't help but think this is all suspicious.

"Those are the adult Striders. Dave probably sent them after me for making his best bro so miserable. They can't know I'm here. Otherwise they'll probably take me out somewhere and cull me." Karkat covers himself in blankets on his moldy mattress. When he's finished, the only sign of something alive being there is only a little bit of movement from his breathing.

"Bro, really you have to believe me," Adult Dave pleads.

"I never said that I don't. Like I said, there are at least two trolls in there. They were probably looking out at us to make sure we weren't up to no good."

"But we aren't."

"And we need to let them know that if we want to search the place for Karkat." Adult Dirk walks over to the window, raises his shades, and looks in, squinting to try to look through the glass, which has a massive glare due to the position of the planet's parent star. His shadow shows through the curtain and becomes visible in the dust suspended in the air. "These curtains must be too thick to see through. I can't see a thing," he says. His voice comes through slightly muffled from inside the motel room where the three trolls sit and wait. Without warning, Adult Dave knocks on the door, startling the only four other living beings within half a mile.


Inside the Heir's mansion, the Seer of Blood walks through seemingly endless devastation, following the rather loud noises to find his destination. In a large open area, Poopsmell Ruinseverything and Whoreface Asswipe are still engaged in the extremely violent Word War II that they were engaged in six chapters ago. But now, the Word War has mostly ceased and now it's mostly violence. When the Seer walks in, Poopsmell is trying to drill a hole into Whoreface, who is using his blood powers to control Poopsmell, and thus control the flow of the air drill. The Seer, upon seeing this, flips his shit and uses his Blood powers to completely separate the two warring parties. When the two godheads, now being forcefully held against the walls on opposite ends of the devastated room, look over, the Seer of Blood is staring back with eyes as black as the void.